Saline solution is a staple of every hospital. No matter the ailment, doctors have known for more than a century that saline is key to keeping patients hydrated and maintaining their blood pressure levels. But the solution ...

Crucial bodily functions we depend on but don't consciously think about—things like heart rate, blood flow, breathing and digestion—are regulated by the neurovascular unit. The neurovascular unit is made up of blood vessels ...

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have identified the role of an enzyme in muscle wasting, and associated age-related problems. They believe that inhibiting it could hold the key to developing ways of preventing, ...

The leading theory for why the blood of younger mice rejuvenates the muscles of older mice is now in contest. The vampiric exchange of young blood and old blood has long been reported to have anti-aging effects, but it was ...

New proof-of-concept research at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine suggests the potential for engineering replacement intestine tissue in the lab, a treatment that could be applied to infants born with a short ...

Researchers at the University of Liverpool's Institute of Infection and Global Health have discovered a key cause of life threatening heart complications, conditions that frequently follow severe infections with the bacteria ...

Scientists at the University of Southampton have shown that although some studies find diet can enhance the effects of exercise to prevent muscle loss in later life, current evidence about what works is inconsistent.

(HealthDay)—Muscle inflammation susceptibility (MuIS) status seems to be able to predict recovery after total hip arthroplasty (THA), according to research published in the April 15 issue of the American Journal of Physiology, ...

Muscle

Muscle (from Latin musculus, diminutive of mus "mouse") is the contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to produce force and cause motion. Muscles can cause either locomotion of the organism itself or movement of internal organs. Cardiac and smooth muscle contraction occurs without conscious thought and is necessary for survival. Examples are the contraction of the heart and peristalsis which pushes food through the digestive system. Voluntary contraction of the skeletal muscles is used to move the body and can be finely controlled. Examples are movements of the eye, or gross movements like the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. There are two broad types of voluntary muscle fibers: slow twitch and fast twitch. Slow twitch fibers contract for long periods of time but with little force while fast twitch fibers contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly.